Chapter 5

My first week of public school had been somewhat of a mixed bag so far. I’d gotten a job that seemed like it’d be okay, free music lessons, and it looked like I might manage to make some friends. On the other hand, I had also managed to make enemies, including a teacher, and I was starting to realize how out of my depth I was in school. I’d never considered myself uneducated and I always thought my mom had done a good job homeschooling me. While I still think she did her best, it was now clear I wasn’t as prepared as I needed to be.

By the time I got to English, I was completely frustrated. The classes moved fast, and just as I started to glimpse something I should know, they moved on to a new subject, making me feel like I was falling further and further behind. I was thinking about how I would get my shit together in the class to avoid flunking it when Rhonda sat in the seat next to me.

We didn’t have assigned seats, but people had been sitting in the same chairs two days in a row, so I assumed everyone sat at the same place every time. I saw the guy who’d been next to me the day before in the seat Rhonda had been in, which suggested she’d orchestrated the move. The thought made me sit up.

“Hey,” I said as nonchalantly as I could.

“Hey.”

I opened my binder and got ready for class, trying to act like it was no big deal she’d moved next to me. I knew better than to ask. One of the things I’d picked up from the people I’d hung around with at the clubs was no girl wanted to deal with a guy who needed constant reassurance. I’d watched many guys strike out hard with one of the rocker chicks by not being confident enough.

Inside my head, however, I was a swirl of thoughts. What did her sitting next to me, mean? Did she move because she wanted to talk to me, or did the guy who’d been sitting next to me want to sit over there?

“I hear you were talking to my sister about me,” she said, looking at her textbook and not me.

“Your sister’s Jordan, right?”

She gave me a side-eye with a raised eyebrow, calling my disinterested bluff.

“I was talking with her friend Hanna at lunch the other day, and I was telling them about my classes. I may have mentioned I was partnered up with a cute girl in my English class.”

I saw her lip twitch in a slight smile.

“If you want, you could come sit with us at lunch.”

“Sounds good,” I said, keeping my eyes on my own work, trying to play it cool.

The bell rang, and the teacher started going over today’s assignment, putting a stop to any other conversation. We caught each other giving side-eyed glances several times while doing our assigned worksheets. At some point, our trying to catch the other one looking became a game until we were almost called out for not paying attention. I managed to BS an answer to the question I hadn’t been paying attention to but decided it would probably be a good idea to start paying a little attention before we actually got in trouble.

“This is your first year at Carr?” she said as we walked out of class together.

I fell in step with her, letting her lead us to the cafeteria and towards her table.

“Yeah.”

“Where’d you go last year?”

“Your sister didn’t tell you?”

She gave me a glance that said ‘don’t be stupid’ and said, “She didn’t actually tell me anything, just teased me. We don’t really get along.”

“Why? She seemed okay to me?”

“She’s fine, I guess. She just thinks I’m shallow and I think she’s kind of a thug.”

“You don’t seem shallow to me,” I offered.

“We’ve only had the one conversation. You don’t actually know me.”

“I mean, my first impression of you was that you weren’t shallow but you’re right, I don’t know much about you.”

I started to walk towards the food line and stopped when Rhonda didn’t go with me.

“I always bring my lunch,” she said. “I can’t stand the food they make.”

“Yeah, the food does kinda suck, but my mom works pretty late most nights.”

I tried to keep my statement vague without telling an actual lie. I didn’t think I could actually hide my family’s financial situation, but saying ‘we’re poor and have to rely on the free lunch program’ isn’t something a guy wants to say out loud, especially when he’s interested in a girl.

“Sure. We’re right over here,” she said, pointing at a table that already had three other girls at it. “I’ll save you a seat.”

“Thanks,” I said, giving her a smile and heading to the line.

After I grabbed the free sack lunch, I realized I hadn’t thought through my deception enough. Kids who bought their lunch got lunch trays with hot food on it. The sack lunch was a brown, rectangular symbol of poverty that Rhonda couldn’t help but miss.

I tried to act nonchalant as I went to her table, keeping the sack lunch low and trying to keep it from being too obvious.

“This is Charlie, he’s in my English class. Charlie, this is Sophie, Camille, Victoria, Jodi, and Abigail.”

While I wasn’t much into fashion, it wasn’t hard to miss that each of these girls was stylish, or at least what I recognized as stylish, which meant they were dressed like people in popular culture. I also noticed that, unlike Hanna’s table, Rhonda only sat with girls.

I sat my lunch down and started pulling out its contents, which seemed to stop the group cold. Rhonda had the least reaction, her eyebrows going up slightly. Camille had the biggest reaction.

“That’s your lunch?”

“Yes.”

“Isn’t that, like, the poor kid’s lunch?”

“Are you, like, poor?”

“Me personally? Sure. I don’t have a job or anything.”

“You know what I mean.”

“I do, but does it matter how much money I have? Are you, like, shallow?”

“Whatever,” Camille said.

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence before one of the other girls decided to change the subject.

“So what’s your deal?” Jodi, a blond with way too much makeup, said.

“What do you mean?”

“Like, I don’t ever remember seeing you around. Are you new?”

“Yep, this is my first year here.”

“He used to travel with his rock star dad,” Rhonda offered.

Apparently, she did talk to her sister, since this wasn’t something I’d mentioned to Rhonda yet.

“Really?” Jodi asked, her cautious tone becoming interested.

“Yeah. I mean, he wasn’t a rock star, although he was in a group that got some kind of record contract before I was born. The last few years, though, he just played gigs under his own name.”

“What was it like?” Abigail said.

If she’d worn dark makeup, she’d have been the poster child of a Goth with her black hair and dark eyes. The combination of pale skin, dark hair, and bright clothing made for an odd combination.

“Growing up in clubs was okay. I got to hang out backstage with a lot of musicians, which was cool.”

“He was homeschooled his whole life until now.”

“Really?” Camille said. “That’s weird.”

I was starting to get a serious dislike of Camille. Thankfully, the others seemed more interested in me being able to get into clubs and bars as a kid.

“Don’t be a bitch, Camille,” Jodi said. “Did you ever meet anyone famous?”

“No, but I didn’t always get to go backstage, so I missed a lot of the acts.”

They spent the rest of the lunch period hammering me with questions about clubs, how I learned to play guitar, and more than one question trying to figure out if anyone at the clubs ever let me drink. While there was a lot I didn’t like about the way I grew up, having it as a distraction for Rhonda’s friends was a definite plus.

When everyone packed up and started heading their different directions, Rhonda stopped me, putting a hand lightly on my forearm.

“I think they liked you.”

“Chicks dig musicians.”

Rhonda rolled her eyes and said, “You didn’t just call us chicks.”

“Ladies like musicians?” I revised.

“Much better, and yes, we do. You’re going to have to play for me sometime.”

“I’d love to.”

She gave me a warm smiled and squeezed my arm, rubbing her thumb in a circle several times on the bottom of my forearm. She only made the motion for a few seconds, but it was a clear sign she was doing more than just making contact. My dealings with women being only as a kid hanging out and not practical to my current situation in any way, I decided to just accept the gesture as a sign things were going in the right direction.

She released my arm after a second, said goodbye, and took off in the other direction from my next class. I did the same, walking along obliviously, reliving the scene when Hanna came out of nowhere and hip-checked me.

“Tell me that was you making your move?”

“We just ate lunch.”

“Don’t chicken out. She’s clearly into you.”

“I just want to get to know her. Jordan got in my head about the whole shallow thing. I wanted to get to know her a little bit first.”

“Well, don’t wait too long or you’ll get friend-zoned. I told Jordan to drop some hints about you being a badass guitar player to her sister. If I’m gonna be your wing-woman, you gotta do your part.”

“I wondered why her sister would have told her about my dad and the clubs growing up. Thanks for that. Rhonda brought it up just as the whole twenty questions thing was about to start.”

“See, best wing-woman ever. Now go do your part,” she said, bumped me again, and went off to class.

I watched her go for a second before going off in my own direction. It was weird how fast she changed her opinion of me, or at least her attitude towards me. Her sudden switch gave me a little whiplash, but I could live with it since her change was in the right direction. Either way, I was thankful she’d decided to become my friend, although I wasn’t sold on her “being my wing-woman” bit.

My lack of knowledge of the inner workings of the female mind seemed to now extend beyond the signals Rhonda was or was not putting out.

The next day things went somewhat better, with nothing beyond snide comments from Coach Bryant and no run-ins with Aaron in the halls. I was still struggling with the classwork, but I also got to sit with Rhonda again. There had been some kind of commotion with a guy that Jodi had been dating, who had moved away and decided to try the long-distance thing. I was lost for pretty much the entire conversation since they were talking very fast, and I knew almost none of the people they referenced. Once they dropped into man-hating as a way to console their heartbroken friend, I decided it was best to remain silent and not draw attention to myself.

That was apparently a good call since, as she left, Rhonda stopped to squeeze my arm again and give me a smile that seemed meant specifically for me. The contact was again brief, but I was still inclined to assume these were all good signs.

While everything had gone good so far, I was starting to get nervous as I walked out to meet Hanna at her car. Today was the first day of work at the Blue Ridge. Hanna had mentioned on the ride to school that she preferred to go there right after class, do any homework she had, and then get her prep-work out of the way. While she didn’t really give me the option of not going straight there with her, I also wasn’t going to mess up her schedule any more than I already had.

I wasn’t a stranger to physical labor since once I started getting older Dad had put me to work helping him unload, set up, and then tear down at the end of the night. This was different though since it wasn’t like my dad could fire me if I sucked.

Willie was on the porch like last time, leaned back against the wall. He reached out, and Hanna slapped his hand as she went by. I followed suit, except Willie’s hand closed around mine as I slapped his outstretched palm, forcing me to stop.

“You gonna find some time to sit with me today? I’d like to see what else you got.”

“Depends on Chef, I guess; but if he lets me go before it’s too late, then sure.”

“I talked to Chef, already. He promised me I’d get some time with ya.”

“Ohh, that’s great then. Thanks, Willie. I appreciate any help you can give me.”

“Son, you got a talent, it just needs a little polishin’.”

“Well, I should get inside. I don’t want to be late on my first day.”

“Give em’ hell,” Willie said, letting go of my hand.